Pizza Club Book Club

Put your book recommendations here!

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I recently read a very fascinating book about Shackleton. He is the guy who attempted to get to the South Pole first - by walking and pony. Yes, ponies (he later switched to sled dogs). It didn't happen, but what followed was a year-long quest for survival, marooned on their expedition when their ship, the Endurance, was trapped in the icy sea for 5 months, then destroyed by the ice and sunk. They literally had to CAMP on the ice (which is just frozen sea) for the next 5 months, then when the ice began to melt right under their feet they hatched a plan to row the 3 lifeboats from the ship 800 miles north to the nearest inhabited islands. After miles of walking through freezing temperatures, nearly starving, drowning and freezing to death, he made it back to civilization - and he didn't lose a man in a party of about 30! Wow!
The book is Shackleton: The Antarctic Challenge by Kim Heacox.

Hyperion. I will be lazy and just link to my already written review of it:
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The Agony and the Ecstasy. Does the title make it sound like one of those cheap paperback romance novels that my grandma reads? Yes. But its actually a historic-novel about the life of one of the greatest minds of all time, Michelangelo. It was written in 1961, they've based a movie on it (which I don't want to see). It is extremely well written, and most importantly (to a history nerd like me at least) it is very accurate. The author, Irving Stone, spent years in Italy studying Michelangelo's life, visiting the locations featured in the book, and even apprenticed himself as a marble sculptor so that the book could be as accurate as possible. Its a really great read.

Cadet wrote:

Hyperion. I will be lazy and just link to my already written review of it:
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That sounds like something I would really like. I might have to pick it up sometime, but I've already got so many books lined up. Right now I'm reading The Divine Comedy for the first time, its excellent, but it is taking forever to read because I keep getting distracted researching all the people mentioned throughout it. Dante does a lot of name dropping.

A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Just finished the second book, good Lord these books are amazing. I was pretty burnt out on Fantasy, but this is different. I suggest everyone read this series. The first book is A Game of Thrones btw. Also HBO has a live-action series coming out based on the books, the author himself (George R.R. Martin) is producing.